Oakland bond measure, affordable housing

San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate/Rachel Swan, 8/30/16. "Public health problems in Oakland linked to housing crisis."

Memo from our local NIMBIES:
Live on the beach on your way out
of our town.  And leave NO trash!

Yeah well, it's affordable.

"The high cost of housing has created a public health crisis in Oakland, Dr. Muntu Davis, head of the Alameda County Public Health Department, said during a news conference at Oakland City Hall on Tuesday. Hypertension and asthma rates are increasing as residents grapple with increased rents and lack of stability. The associated stress can cause depression, anxiety and even schizophrenia, according to a new study by the Health Department and the Oakland research firm PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity.

.... Housing pressures have tremendous impacts on individuals, some of whom cannot afford to buy healthy food or medicine because they have to save the bulk of their income for housing, Davis said. But the housing crisis has also reshaped cities, said Kalima Rose, senior director of  PolicyLink. 

....  City and county officials are taking steps to quell the problem, most notably with a $580 million affordable housing bond that will go before Alameda County voters in November. That, coupled with a city ballot measure that will require property owners to petition for certain rent increases, could help some residents keep their homes. But the city and county will have to act fast, Rose warned.

“There has practically been free range of the market for the last decade, and very little intervention on behalf of tenants,” she said. To Davis, the housing crisis has become a matter of life or death. “As we look at the leading causes of death over past decades, it’s chronic diseases that don’t go away with a vaccination,” she said. One of the best ways to stem such health conditions, he said, is to improve people’s housing quality."   Read article.

Reference. PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity, "Smart, targeted, and equitable public infrastructure investments can generate enormous community benefits—jobs, business opportunities, access to public transportation, and quality affordable housing."   Note photographs. Upside down house from Reuters/Business Insider/Finance/Will Martin, 10/25/15, "These are the 15 worst places in the UK." Live on the beach face page image from Rental Living, "The top 10 places to live in Orange County", 4. For Beach Bums, Huntington Beach.
  
Posted by Kathy Meeh